Syrian girl born without legs receives new prosthetics in Turkey

The 8-year-old Syrian girl, crying silently in an Istanbul clinic, was overwhelmed by the new pair of prosthetic legs that she had just received and surprised by the cameras pointed at her by reporters who attended the fitting.

Maya Meri has been in the spotlight since footage of her plight hit social media last month. She was filmed at a camp for displaced people in Idlib province, northwestern Syria, walking around with cans of tuna, plastic tubes and cloth. from other things, then I made these members for her, "said her father, Mohammed.

Maya was born without legs because of an illness called congenital amputation. Her story has pushed a Turkish prosthetic specialist to join the largest humanitarian organization in Turkey, who evacuated her from Syria.

Maya is now in Istanbul with her father, who shares the same disability. Journalists, prosthetic specialist Mehmet Zeki Culcu removed Maya's makeshift legs, first wrapped her limbs in protective layers of fabric and then placed them in temporary prostheses. The camera clicked when Culcu lifted Maya and she stood in her purple and pink sneakers, which looked too big.

Originally from Aleppo province, the Meri family had to move to escape the fighting

. have fled to a zon He did not witness any bombings, but it was difficult to live under a tent on a mountain, "said Mohammed, who still has five children in Syria with their mother.

In Idlib camp, Maya and her father had to crawl on the bare land to go anywhere. He said that the little girl would suffer from rough terrain when she was going to school.

Home prostheses allowed her to move more easily and helped her learn how to balance, shortening a two week process to a single day when she was equipped with her new legs. Culcu, who took his case for pro-bono, thinks it will take about two and a half months for her to be fully equipped.

"If Maya continues to learn so quickly and to be so enthusiastic, she could be completed in a Maya's training to take action with the help of With the passage of time, Ms. Culcu stated that her trial suture prostheses would be lengthened with a knee joint, then extended below the knee, and she winced after one hour with her synthetic limbs, but the technicians were said that it was predictable and worked to adjust them.

Culcu said that Maya has become a "child symbol" and he hopes the world will be moved to end the civil war in Syria. [19659002] "There are hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities, including tens of thousands of children who unfortunately need prostheses," he said, who shares a long border with Syria, said. 39, is entrenched in the Syrian conflict.The country hosts more than 3.5 million r Syrian refugees, and its agencies and nongovernmental organizations are working across the border to provide help.

Turkish troops and Syrian Allied fighters seized the territory of northern Syria. Kurdish fighters. Turkey, which supports the Syrian opposition, has negotiated ceasefires with Iran and Russia, which are allied to the government.

The Turkish Red Crescent is sponsoring Maya and her father's stay in Turkey. Culcu is committed to providing prosthetics to the elder Meri after he has received an operation to prepare his limbs for fitting.

After trying out her new dentures, Maya sits on her father's lap, exhausted and silent.

"Life is beautiful if I can live here in Turkey, where someone can help us lead a good life, because I can not work," he said.

Beirut contributed.